


Of Pain and Of Angels

by HK44



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Angels, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Referenced Torture, Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:00:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29450439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HK44/pseuds/HK44
Summary: When Percy goes to check in on Nico, he discovers something horrific.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson
Comments: 9
Kudos: 88





	Of Pain and Of Angels

It’s a weird blessing, but he supposed it should’ve been expected when he asked his father for bigger responsibilities around the Underworld. He’s diplomatic and other gods like him. Why wouldn’t his father request him to go out collecting souls in the vast ocean? His brother can be cruel at times - rude to everyone but his wife and older brother. Thanatos and Hermes avoid collecting from the ocean as long as they can. But Nico always liked the sea.

Poseidon is an interesting man Percy has his eyes, his devilish smile. Every time he ventures down deep into the sea’s slowly repairing castle, part of him yearns when the god approaches.

And his wings always shudder.

\--

Percy worried his lip between his teeth. Nico had been in the bathroom for a long time. Shortly after the first war, his mom had sort of... bullied him into staying with them whenever he was topside. He used to stay in the guest room but ever since Estelle was born, he would crash on the floor in Percy’s room, curled up into a ball against a corner.

His mom and Paul were out at some hotel getting some much needed alone time and Estelle was with Paul’s mother. It was just the two of them.

Maybe Nico was still uncomfortable with being around Percy. It was kind of... painful to find out that Nico crushed on him. Even more so when Nico clarified that he wasn’t embarrassed so much as having a crush on a boy, so much as it was because he still viewed Percy as the reason Bianca was killed and while he’d initially gotten over it after their struggle through the labyrinth, rummaging through Tartarus had sort of... reignited it.

Which explained his sudden change of mood when he met Percy at Camp Jupiter versus when they pulled him out of that damn jar.

“I’m getting over it again though,” he had said quietly through the conversation. “She’s... gone and...” He exhaled sharply. Annabeth winced as Percy’s nails had dug into her hand. “It’s... more my fault anyway.”

“It’s not,” Percy had said quickly but Nico had shrugged it off like he did with pretty much everything and they delved off into discussing Tartarus and therapy with Pasithea.

Pasithea was nice enough. Annabeth liked talking to her. She made pills that blissed Percy out when he was having a bad day and helped him fall asleep to no nightmares. Slowly he’d been weaning off of them, but he’d see Nico down one pretty much every day. Once in the morning, once at night. Were they the same? Was it something else?

Nico’s body was constantly overloaded. He’d been raised and taught by gods. They didn’t have mortal constraints. Pain was a constant against his skin - especially after the fight with Gaea. Reyna had been very clear when she told them to make sure he didn’t overload himself again and with Will, Nico seemed to be doing better.

Until they broke up for reasons Nico wouldn’t really discuss.

He left camp again and wandered freely as he used to.

But there were no shadows leaking from his skin and when Percy touched him, he seemed fine. Solid. Corporeal.

At least, he thought so.

Percy knocked on the bathroom door. “Hey, Nick? You’ve, uh, been in there a while, is everything okay?” He had quickly limped off to the bathroom after waking up an hour ago. The shower was still running. Percy bounced on his heels. Worry trampled itself inside his throat. “Nico?”

“I’m fine!” came the hurried response but there was a cracked sound to his voice. “I’m just... doing something.”

“Okay,” Percy said faintly. Was he... jacking off? Percy’s cheeks burned at the thought. He backed off into his room, rubbing the back of his neck. Anxiety was still eating at his head. He held his breath and sat down on his bed, gripping the mattress. “Breathe, breathe, breathe.”

Exhaling sharply, he glanced at Nico’s sheets and grimaced then immediately chided himself. _You were the exact same way, dumbass_. He rolled his eyes and grabbed Nico’s pile of blankets to throw in the wash. Just in case.

As they lifted, they unfurled. And several red splotches on the soft Finding Nemo themed blanket unveiled themselves like a slap to the face.

His heart skipped several beats as the blanket fell from his fingertips and he found himself shoving the bathroom door open before he knew what happened. Nico screeched. His hands, bloodied violently, slammed against the shower wall, smearing wet red handprints.

The shower was off but his hair was still dripping wet. Droplets slipped down his face, curving under his and down his back around the expansive shimmering wings spilling from Nico’s back.

“What the fuck, Percy?” Nico shouted. The wings slammed into each other as though they were trying to retreat into his skin and he screamed, keeling over.

Hunched over the rim of the tub, Percy could see the source of all the blood. It dripped from Nico’s wings and pooled against the slits where his wings drew out. At a closer look, the wings themselves were clearly damaged. Feathers misplaced or just missing. Along the top edge of one, there was exposed cracked bone.

“Nico?” Percy breathed. He rushed over. The bottom of the tub was stained with watery blood. Nico was breathing hard, his chest heaving. “Hey, hey, hey. Whoa, whoa, what do you need from me?”

“To get-” Nico grit his teeth. “-out.”

“Not happening.”

“Fuck you.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Percy ran his hand over Nico’s back. Underneath his skin, there was a shifting. “What is-”

“Dad made me a pyschopomp,” Nico muttered. “Everybody gets wings apparently.”

Made sense, Percy thought, imagining Hermes’ winged shoes and Thanatos’ gorgeous black wings. “What’s wrong with them?”

“Nothing.”

Percy scowled. “Yeah, I have a winged horse, Nico. I know when they’re fucking damaged, you lying little shit.”

Nico swatted at him as much as he could with his arms tucked into his chest. “I-” His voice cracked. “They got damaged. When I- when I was in-” A hollowness shattered inside Percy’s chest. Nico’s eyes squeezed tight. “They’re only supposed to be there when I’m collecting, but sometimes I can make them happen if I focus enough and I was-” He trailed off.

Percy filled in the blanks. “You were trying to get away.”

He nodded slowly. “Didn’t really pan out. They, uh...” He gestured loosely to his back. “Yeah.”

“They don’t really look like they’re healing.” Percy reached over Nico to turn on the tub tap, pulling the stopper up. “Probably hard to do when they’re being hidden, huh?”

Nico nodded loosely. “It hurts to... set them back. Than did some of one of them but I just-” He winced. “It just-”

His hands dug into his wrists as they did whenever he was having a bad day. Oh. It reminded him of when they were getting destroyed.

“You try morphine? Works wonders.”

“I don’t really like things that make me vulnerable to people messing with my body,” Nico said quietly. Percy’s breath hitched. “Or when people mess with my head. So... it wasn’t really...”

Ah. “Can’t believe they didn’t tell your dad.”

“I made them not.” He sniffled. “He’s, uh... I like working for him.”

Percy frowned. “I don’t think he’d take away the job, just, maybe give you something different. Like a backpack with wings. Or... shoes.” Nico didn’t respond. Percy sighed. “Look, I’ve, uh, set Blackjack’s wings before. Sometimes he gets a little bit too freaked and throws himself into the nearest tree.” His hand ghosted along the edge of the nearest shaking bloody limb. “Can I...”

Nico didn’t move.

The water filling up the tub sloshed around his ankles. “I can try to numb it. But, um, if you don’t trust me to-”

“I trust you.” Nico looked away. “I’m just really _tired_ of hurting.”

“I’ll do my best,” he said. “And if it hurts, we stop, okay?”

It sounded too intimate - like when he and Annabeth had sex for the first time and he’d been so nervous, she rolled him onto his back and pulled out the pinkest dildo he’d ever seen. And then she showed him the ropes personally and it stung a little but he didn’t mind.

He bit his lip as Nico squinted at him like he was thinking the same thing. Luckily, Nico just looked away. Slowly Percy helped shift him around so he could get a better look at what he was working with. The damage was... uncomfortable. Like Nico had said, part of one wing was somewhat repaired but it was just a small bit at the end.

Water trellised up his back in small trails. It sloshed around the open bloodied slits. It was a back and forth, cleaning away all the blood and viscera, trailing it down in little streams and carrying clear clean water back up.

“I know they like you and all but, uh-” Percy squeezed a small part and relaxed when Nico didn’t flinch or cry out. “-I’m surprised they just didn’t force you to take an anesthetic.”

“They tried.” Nico flicked at the bloody water pooling around his thighs. “It didn’t really take.”

“Oh.” The mental image of Nico fighting back against a group of gods trying to help heal him buried its way into his head. Too scared of what he’d experienced in the past to let anyone near him - not even people he knew he could trust, people he’d relied on for help before.

It made him feel pleased to be trusted in this way but also fearful. He didn’t want to scare Nico. Or hurt him.

He swallowed thickly. 

“So... psychopomp, huh? Sounds like an interesting job.”

“It is. I like taking people home.”

Percy thought about the other gods Nico had introduced him to. "Do you take everyone to their new homes or just your dad's?"

Nico cocked his head as Percy slowly began to pop a dislocated joint back into place. "Usually just Dad but sometimes I have to transfer souls over. I usually just pick up souls from the ocean though. Your father is... annoying to the other two sometimes, but he likes me well enough so..."

"Why wouldn't he?" Percy hummed. "You're great." He cleared his throat. "Uh, I don't mind tagging along sometimes, if you, you know, need a hand keeping sea monsters clear."

Nico was quiet for a moment as Percy began forcefully rebreaking his healed wrong bones. Then, "I'd like that. Your father kind of... shows off. It can be a little worrisome." He was quiet again before finishing with, "That's only been pretty recent though. I think he's trying to hit on me."

"Oh my gods, please don't do that."

Nico sent him a wry grin over his shoulder. "No promises."

"I will fuck you, if you don't fuck my dad, Nico, I swear." The silence between them was palpable. Percy stopped setting one of the bones in place, the feathers wet and matted over his skin. "I mean-"

"Annabeth wouldn't approve of that joke," Nico cut in, looking away, his skin all tense and body recoiling into itself.

"Annabeth is currently dating a girl in one of her online classes so she wouldn't be allowed to disapprove," Percy said. He smoothed down a few feathers and watched them fall off Nico's skin and into the water.

"I didn't know you broke up."

"We didn't. She said she liked this girl in her class and I told her to go for it." Percy picked up the fallen feathers and set them on the bath rug to dry. "And she said I could do the same. You know." He paused. "Since I like guys."

Nico didn't say anything to that and Percy quietly pinched between his thumb and forefinger. Such a seaweed brain move but...

He sighed and continued on. It was over an hour before he had cleaned off Nico's wings, healed the cracks, healed the constantly splitting wounds, fixed up the bones that had healed wrong and set everything in place. The amount of focus he was putting into it was exhausting. He'd never healed anyone - not even himself - to this extent before. But he wanted Nico to be fixed completely, not reliant on nectar or ambrosia to finish it. So next was pulling out the part of his right wing that was firmly lodged under his skin.

Every time he swept his hand over Nico's back, he could feel the weird jut. And when Nico flexed, it moved so tentatively as though ready to tear open the skin it was hiding under.

Percy wondered if that had happened before.

"Deep breath," he muttered.

"I can't feel anything," Nico assured himself.

"I'm talking to myself." Nico snorted. Percy pushed down on the jut, pulling gently on the wing. Blood slid out at a shockingly fast pace. Nico shuddered but didn't hiss or tell him to stop so he kept going until the wing pulled taut. Then he ducked his head closer, trying to figure out the issue.

Was it caught on something? Or had a joint healed so large it wouldn't pull out of the slit anymore?

"I think I need to cut this part open," he said quietly.

"Okay."

Riptide was awkward to hold for this but he had no interest in leaving Nico alone to go find a proper knife. He pressed the sword to edge of the wing slit before slowly pulling it across by an inch. Then set it aside and began tugging on the wing again. It pulled a little more out this time before stopping once more. He glanced at his sword before calling it and shoving two fingers under Nico's skin.

He didn't have to search far for the problem. It hit his fingertips the moment he slid them in. A slimy substance held firm over the tip of the joint. He frowned, keeping his fingers still. He could see them pressing up against Nico's skin. It was kind of cool. But also really gross.

With his wrong hand he picked up Riptide once more and cut a deeper line just against his fingertips. The end of the wing was just barely evident. Slicked golden-black feathers with a weird green slime around the top.

"Something weird." He jammed his fingers in, half focused on making sure Nico felt _nothing_ but also making sure that he was actually getting the thing that was blocking the wing from coming out at all. "Think I- almost..." He dug his nails into it, his left hand coming up to push in too. The squelching was almost stomach churning but then-

It snapped out.

He threw the green slimy substance to the tiled bathroom floor, splattering blood and torn muscle tissue. "What the-" The substance moved. "FUCK!" He snagged up Riptide and stabbed it clean through the center. "What the hell was-"

"A curse," Nico mumbled. He drifted his hand over one of his wings. "That was probably part of the problem with them healing."

"Shit." Percy stood up, stepping on one end. It kind of looked like a large slug. "Is it dead?"

"Well, it wasn't a verbal curse so yeah. Should be good." He winced. "Percy-" His voice cracked. " _The pain_."

"Fuck, sorry." His hand flattened against Nico's back. Slowly he began to ease the rest of the wing out, fixing it up as he'd done with the rest.

Clean and healthy, he took them in against Nico's bare back. He was tanner these days but the dark wings stood out beautifully against his skin. Black with shimmers and spackles of golden flakes. Withdrawing his freezing numbing water, he slid his hands over Nico's feathers. There were uncomfortable patches of bare skin and the top bone of his left wing was still horribly exposed but Percy doubted it would ever heal over again. Not when the rest of the skin in that area had firmly healed rounded out.

Somehow, though, it was cute to look at it. It fit him.

"They're really nice," he said.

Nico's voice was a near whisper as he mumbled, "Thanks."

The feathers, although damp, were soft to the touch. He grabbed a bottle of lotion off the sink counter and began rubbing in into the patches of exposed skin. There was a redness to them he wanted to soothe away.

"If you can't reach back here, I can moisturize it until they grow back," he offered.

Nico shivered. "Yeah, that... that sounds fine."

"Blackjack's usually take a couple months after he goes through his molt." He threaded his fingers in between the feathers. Part of him revelled in the way Nico's back shuddered, muscles flexing.

"Didn't know pegasi molted."

"Yeah, he thinks it's annoying. I think he kind of looks like a pigeon sometimes." Nico laughed, a sweet sound. It was strange in the bloodied water that still swirled around him. Percy reached over his head to remove the stopper and capped the lid to the lotion. "Do you guys molt or are angels lucked out on that?"

Nico sent him an odd look before grumbling, "I'm not an angel. And, yeah. Than said it's every two years and itchy and starts from the bottom up for, like, six weeks. Hypnos hates it because it gets in the way of his sleep." He swirled his hand in the draining water. "Than said warm aloe baths are good for it." He cleared his throat and tilted his head up, staring at the showerhead. "And constant grooming."

Percy's skin burned.

"Pasi does Hypnos and her kids, the oneiroi, and Macaria usually cleans up Than's." He shuffled awkwardly where he was squatted. "Apparently they get kind of grimy and she's a damn clean freak." He snorted. "She sent the Keres back to the House of Nyx for spilling blood on the carpet when they were eating." He pressed his thumb and forefinger together. "Tiniest drop of blood. Couldn't even see it and she sussed it out like a bloodhound. It's hilarious. And terrifying."

"Sounds like it." Percy stood up and gathered up a clean towel from the cabinet. "You know, it's weird your dad employees cannibals."

"Cannibalism only applies to the same species and she's not human - mortal or otherwise," Nico said. Gratefulness lit up in his eyes as Percy draped the towel over his shoulders. He smiled back in kind before turning around, collecting Nico's bloodied clothes from where they were scattered on the ground. "And it's all they can eat so it's not like there's really much of a choice."

"Ugh, monsters and their all human diets," Percy muttered. He picked up Riptide, the curse still impaled. Shaking it off into the toilet, he watched it swirl away down the drain.

"She's a spirit but sure." Nico rolled his eyes. "At least it's not a sole demigod diet."

"At least." He tucked Nico's clothes under his arm and looked away. "I'm gonna go grab your spares."

A damp hand snagged his wrist before he could leave. Nervously, he turned back around. Nico's towel was thankfully wrapped around him fully even as the other was stood up in the tub, as naked as the day he was born. Percy snapped his eyes to Nico's, trying to focus.

Try as he might, he could not remember the last time he'd seen Nico so bare before. Even in the comfort and safety of his mom's house, Nico was dressed up. Always long pants and a black shirt. Lately he'd been wearing short sleeves but still, even then, he had on his new aviator jacket, sourced by Hazel and purchased by Frank, directly from a World War Two veteran.

Was it just the wings or was it more to that? The wings, he said, only appeared when he was collecting. Or when he wanted them to. Having taken in his bare back, the full expanse of his arms, Percy realized, sudden, like a punch to the gut, how scarred up Nico's skin actually was. He was so preoccupied with the damage to his wings, he hadn't even noticed.

Nico's thin fingers fell from his wrist. His cheeks pinked. His eyes darted away, head notching down. "Um, thanks."

Percy swallowed thickly. "No problem. You know I love you."

Somewhere Annabeth and Grover were facepalming and didn't know why. Luckily, Nico just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I know." He tucked the towel tighter around his shoulders. "It's nice."

Confronting his own emotions was not really something Percy liked doing. His work with Pasithea had been helpful with that - his nightmares, his fears, his sudden bursts of uncontrollable anger - but other than that...

He exhaled slowly and cupped Nico's cheek, leaning down to kiss the top of his head before pulling back. He gestured loosely to the clothes tucked under his arms. "Spare clothes. Be right back." He slipped out the door then paused as it closed behind him. Nico blinked as he reopened. "You're wrong by the way. You are an angel." He grinned. "It's your name after all."

Nico's cheeks darkened. "Shut up and get my clothes, Jackson."

Percy laughed as he pulled the bathroom door shut. On his way back to his bedroom, where Nico's spare clothes sat in the bottom drawer of his dresser, he fiddled his phone out of his pocket. _We need to talk,_ he texted. Annabeth simply sent back a thumbs up emoji. He pocketed his phone away and, _finally_ , collected some clothes for his healing angel.

**Author's Note:**

> [Hey, I have a twitter where I post WIP updates and other threads. Feel free to check it out!](https://twitter.com/HK_Threads)
> 
> Do note that since some of my content is NSFW, the requirement to follow is 18+. Thanks!


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